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UnderstandingLogicalProcessors
Posted:March26,2012
Reportby:WesMiller

BacktoReport:SQLServer2012AdoptsPerCoreLicensingModel

Logicalprocessorssubdivideaserver'sprocessingpowertoenableparallelprocessing.Shownhereisaserverwithtwophysicalprocessors
withaviewofhowtheOSrecognizestheresultinglogicalprocessors.

AphysicalprocessoralsoreferredtoasaCPU,asocket,oroccasionallyasapackageisachipthatisvisibleonacomputer'scircuitboard.Most
modernphysicalprocessorshavetwoormorecores,whichareindependentprocessingunits.Typicalserverswillhavemultiplephysicalprocessors
withatleastfourorasmanyas10coresineach.

AlogicalprocessorisperceivedbyWindowsasaprocessor,andeachlogicalprocessoriscapableofexecutingitsownstreamofinstructions
simultaneously,towhichtheOScaninturnassignsimultaneousindependentunitsofwork.WindowsServerenableseachcoretoappearasalogical
processor,sotheservershownhere,whichhastwoquadcorephysicalprocessors,canhaveeightlogicalprocessors.Someprocessorssupporta
technologycalledsymmetricmultithreading(whichIntelcalls"hyperthreading"),whichenablesacoretoexecutetwoindependentinstructionstreams
simultaneously.Ifthetechnologywereenabledhere,theresultwouldbe16logicalprocessors.

WhileSQLServer2012offerslicensingthatispercore,thatlicensingisbasedonphysicalcores.Thenumberoflogicalcoresisirrelevanttotheper
corelicensingcostswhenlicensingphysicalservers,andinsteadonlyplaysaroleinthenumberoflogicalprocessorsthatWindowsandSQLServer
cantechnicallysupport.

Virtualmachines(VMs)arelicensedbasedontheconceptofa"virtualcore,"whichisaprocessorasviewedbytheVMguestOS.Logicalprocessors
haveapotentialeffectintheirlicensing,asMicrosofthasstatedthatassigningavirtualcoretomorethanonethreadatatime(twoormorelogical
processors)orassigningalogicalprocessortomorethanonevirtualcoreatatimemayincuradditionalcorelicensecharges.

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